Proposed features/incline up down

The Feature Page for the approved proposal incline up down can be located at Key:incline.

incline_up_down
Status:	Approved (active)
Proposed by:	Tordanik
Tagging:	incline=up/down
Applies to:	way
Definition:	general direction of incline
Rendered as:	rendering-dependent representation of direction
Draft start:	2009-08-20
RFC start:	2009-08-20
Vote start:	2009-10-03
Vote end:	2009-10-17

The key incline is already used to tag a way's steepness as a percentage (such as incline=8%). When a percentage is given, general direction of incline is determined by distinguishing between positive and negative values.

This proposal aims to define additional values for the incline key that determine the general direction of incline without the need to provide a percentage:

• incline=up
• incline=down

Just as the incline key in general, these values depend on way direction.

Contents 1 Reasoning 2 Rendering 3 Discussion 4 Voting

Reasoning

In practice, a mapper will often know from memory whether a way (such as highway=steps) goes up or down, but will not be able to provide a reasonable estimate for a percentage without revisiting the place and measuring the incline. In this situation, the general direction of incline can be tagged using incline=up/down, which will already be useful for some applications. The value can be replaced with a percentage later.

It should be noted that up/down are already rather popular as values for incline (see tagwatch), demonstrating a need for this intermediate level of detail.

Rendering

For features such as steps, incline direction information could be displayed as arrowheads or similar graphical representations.

Discussion

Please use the talk page.

Voting

Indicate below whether you approve this proposal. Do not discuss in the voting section, use the talk page for this. Placing your comments on the talk page instead of among the votes allows people to reply to you without messing up the vote list.

• I approve this proposal. -- tfdvideo 22:09, 17. Oktober 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --XCRacer 16:34, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --GRappa 11:33, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Tib 07:55, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Tordanik 14:14, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Gnonthgol 14:25, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Dieterdreist 14:27, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Muir Sat Oct 3 14:28:10 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --User:Renaud Sat Oct 3 16:55 2009 (+0200)
• I approve this proposal. --User:Mnalis Sat Oct 3 16:57 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. -- Dunno why we vote now out of the blue (it is used a lot already anyhow. But of course I do approve --Extremecarver 17:56, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Kaivi 21:46, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Waldo000000 04:32, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Mikh43 08:55, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
• I oppose this proposal. It should be obvious what way the incline is by a positive or negative number, which again indicates how steep the incline is. The values up and down does nothing more than indicate the direction, leaving the grade completely unknown, and therefor just as good as if it was untagged. incline=* is not there to tag any hill, incline or decline on the road, but only those that have a significance on routing, usually those marked with warning signs either on the top or the bottom, or both. The signs usually have the information you need to put in the grade of incline. --Skippern 03:41, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

You think far too street/caruse centric. I have never seen a mountain trail with incline sign, even though they can be very steep. However for autorouting for mtbikers/hikers (a trail can be so steep that cycling uphill is impossible, downhill however well possible - no need to know specific incline because of mtb:scale:uphill key) or skiers it is very useful for the autorouting software to know which direction a way goes uphill/downhill. Also think e.g. about skilifts. Can be useful to know which way is up, which is down - without any need to know the gradient.--Extremecarver 07:23, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

• I oppose this proposal. I agree with Skippern this tag is meaningless. Absolutely horizontal roads are very rare, practically every road has incline up or down. -- Zkir 14:53, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

-> see talk section. --Tordanik 15:57, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

• I oppose this proposal. I agree with Skippern first arguement. But I also think we need a value for incline=* in a more precised way. I think it is important, especially for wheelchairs, buggies, bicycle and trailors. For me it is quite hard to estimate the exact incline. May-be we should use incline=incline for 3-6% and incline=incline_steep for > 6%. --skyper 18:15, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
• I oppose this proposal. I agree with Skippern --Lulu-Ann 14:28, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

incline=steep is complete RUBBISH for lines. It does not tell the direction! Incline=up/down is essentially for very steep, say more than 20% ways.

A point has no direction. A way in OSM has allways a direction. Common sense at least with steps is to point upwards. I can convert this to other ways. I also can introduce incline=decline if you do not want to change the direction. For wheelchairs the max_incline is 6% ! If you say 20% you will find a lot of pathes,ski-routes etc. but not many steets,cycleways and footways at all, then this proposal is complete RUBBISH. --skyper 13:48, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

"Common sense at least with steps is to point upwards." - This is simply untrue and not logical at all. Also what about oneways pointing down? That is why incline=steep and incline=very_steep only applies to points!--Extremecarver 13:59, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, for the common sense, but if you look at the describtion of highway=steps, you find a solution using direction=up/down. For oneway there already exists oneway=-1 --skyper 09:47, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Ok, the direction tag is relevant for this discussion. I suggest we take this to the talk page. --Tordanik 23:33, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I didn't know this tag, but it is only relevant for steps, I prefer sticking to incline because the meaning is easier to understand and already in widespread use according to tagwatch.--Extremecarver 07:19, 17 October 2009 (UTC)